Nikole Hannah-Jones To Host Black Authors ‘Read-In’ After Iowa District Canceled It To Align With Trump Directives

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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Howard University professor Nikole Hannah-Jones is still out here doing the ancestors’ work by promoting revolutionary Black writers and pro-Black literature while the raging white nationalists running America work their hardest to restrict, whitewash and outright ban all Black history and social studies that make white people, in all of their infinite white fragility, feel oppressed.

On Saturday, March 15, The “1619 Project” creator will host a free “read-in” highlighting Black books, authors, and themes in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, where the district with the largest percentage of Black children resides. The reason Hannah-Jones is hosting it — and not a representative from the Waterloo Community School District, where the event had been held for K-12 students for nearly 20 years — is that this year’s event, which was scheduled to be hosted by the University of Northern Iowa College of Education in February for Black History Month, was canceled for fear of losing federal funding by running afoul of the Trump administration’s directives to eliminate all things diversity, equity and inclusion. So, what would have been the district’s 19th annual African American Read-In turned out to be white supremacy’s 400th annual effort to stifle Black education and progress.

And that, my friends, is why we need leaders like Nikole Hannah-Jones.

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From the Sacramento Observer:

On Monday, in a video posted on social media, she announced she will present what she’s calling “An African American Read-In” in Waterloo this Saturday, a free event featuring Black authors she’s invited to join her. Along with readings and conversations, Hannah-Jones will hand out “hundreds” of free books, including copies of “The 1619 Project” for adults and an adapted picture-book version for children.

“Why am I holding this event?” Hannah-Jones says in a video posted on her Instagram account. “Waterloo is my home town, and Waterloo has the most heavily Black school district in the state of Iowa, and it is the most heavily Black city in the state of Iowa.”

The school district that educated her opted out of this year’s statewide read-in, “and they backed out because of the new directives coming out of the Trump administration,” Hannah-Jones says. “And that’s really the reason these directives exist … They are really to intimidate school districts from teaching Black history and Black books. And so my district decided not to participate for fear of consequences.”

“That’s when we at the 1619 Freedom School decided to step up,” she says, referring to an after-school academy Hannah-Jones founded in her hometown. “We decided we would not deprive our children — all of our children, of all races — of the ability to read inspiring and affirming books about the Black experience.”

The event will feature some of “my brilliant writer friends,” including Jacqueline Woodson, Derek Barnes and Tammy Charles, Hannah-Jones says. “So this Saturday we will have a massive, colossal, beautiful community African American read-in.”

The March 15 event will take place between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Waterloo West High School.

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